The present invention relates to an unmanned vessel having a coupling apparatus and a method for recovering the same, and more particularly, to an unmanned vessel having a coupling apparatus which is easy to be coupled to a coupling member of a crane provided on a mother vessel or dock and is able to quickly and stably disposing and recovering an unmanned vessel into a position optimized for recovery through a first winch and a second winch, and a method for recovering the same.
Recently, Korea has experienced a high economic growth and a rapid growth and development of industry such as shipping, harbor, etc due to an increase of import and export trade volume using sea. Thus, the number of accidents at sea has been increased as vessels have become larger and faster in order to cope with the volume of trade suitable for economic scale.
The distress at sea caused by such an accident refers to various accidents that hinder the safe operation of a vessel carrying passenger or goods.
Generally, in the case of nearby sea, many measures are being sought to prevent the casualties in case of distress. However, in the case of distant sea excluding the nearby sea, it takes a lot of time to prevent the casualties. In addition, a lot of costs and time are required when the accident area is not known exactly in the case of lifting to identify the cause of the accident of the distress vessel as well as when the casualties in accident sea area is not known exactly.
In addition, when a large vessel is not easy to enter due to a reef or the like, there is a problem that an anchoring and a rescue operation may be further delayed.
In order to solve these problems, there have been developed a method for using an unmanned vessel in order to perform a quick and safe work, after disposing a relatively small unmanned vessel on a mother vessel such as a large-sized vessel or the like.
In order to recover the unmanned vessel into the mother vessel after the completion of the work, a crew uses a hook or other equipment to fasten a chain to an unmanned submersible, or the crew hangs a heaving line launched by the unmanned vessel to an electric winch to recover the unmanned vessel.
However, when a wind speed or a wave height is high, or when a flow velocity is high in a corresponding sea area, the accuracy of throwing a hook or the accuracy of the heaving line launched by the unmanned vessel may be reduced. Thus, sometimes, a coupling between the mother vessel and the unmanned vessel may not be smooth.
In addition, in order to recover the unmanned vessel through a crane provided on the mother vessel or the like, a wire coupled to the crane should be coupled to the unmanned vessel. However, since the unmanned vessel does not have a crew, the crew should move from the mother vessel to the unmanned vessel to couple both vessels using the wire, or a hook may be used to couple both vessels. However, there is a problem that such a work in sea is not easy. That is, there is a problem that the wire of the crane is not easily coupled, and a safety accident may occur when a crew moves to the unmanned vessel to couple the wire.